Perugino (c.1446-1523) San Sebastiano (Saint Sebastian) c.1493 Metalpoint, 25.6 x 14.6 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland The Florentine painter Perugino made drawings to record figural types and poses that could be repeated throughout his finished paintings. He used the elegant,…
Munch, Edvard (1863-1944) The Sin (Woman with Red Hair and Green Eyes) 1901 Color lithograph, 69.8 x 40.2 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland The fatal women and embracing couples in Picasso’s art of the early 1900s exhibit striking affinities with…
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867) Persée et Andromède (Perseus and Andromeda) c.1819 Oil on canvas, 19.7 × 16.2 cm Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Ingres‘s vulnerable figure of Andromeda is the “classic” idealized figure study. The fact that she is being…
Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528) Madonna and Child 1512 Oil on lime, 49.3 × 37.4 × 2.8 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Inscription on the top right with the monogram, dat. 1512 The relatively small-format painting was certainly intended as a private devotional picture;…
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) The Four Rivers of Paradise c.1615 Oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna According to the conventional interpretation, the four continents are depicted here as female allegoric figures paired with the gods of their…
Gentileschi, Orazio (1563-1639) Danae c.1623 Oil on canvas, 162 x 228.5 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland The gauzy scarf draped over Danaë was a studio prop present in many of Orazio‘s paintings. Danaë’s father feared a prophecy that his grandson…
David, Jacques-Louis (1748-1825) Cupidon et Psyché (Cupid and Psyche) 1817 Oil on canvas, 184.2 x 241.6 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Jacques-Louis David included two butterflies in this painting: one above the slumbering Psyche and the other on the base…
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Jupiter and Antiope 1659 Etching, 13.9 x 20.1 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Rembrandt depicts the slumbering Antiope so convincingly that it seems he is drawing a model actually sleeping soundly. She lies in a totally relaxed pose, her lips parted and her…
Guercino (1591-1666) Venere, Marte e Amore (Venus, Mars and Cupid) 1633 Oil on canvas, 139 x 161 cm Galleria Estense, Modena Following the indication of Venus, whose right hand is painted almost in a trompe l’oeil, Cupid is about to…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) L’enlèvement de Psyché (The Abduction of Psyche) 1895 Oil on canvas, 209 x 120 cm Private collection See also: • Apuleius (c.124-c.170): Psyche et Cupido (Latin)